A method has been known for forming color images, in which three kinds of couplers, viz., yellow, magenta, and cyan, are incorporated into light-sensitive layers, respectively, and after imagewise exposure the light-sensitive layers are processed with a color developing solution containing an aromatic primary amine color developing agent, the oxidation product of which can undergo the coupling reaction with couplers to produce developed colors. Therein, it is important to make a light-sensitive material, which contains silver halide at the least possible coverage, and develop colors at a high efficiency in a limited development time.
In order to effect the color development at a high efficiency, firstly it is necessary to force the development of silver halides to completion as rapidly as possible, and secondly it is desired that silver halide grains to be developed are developed to the last grain. In addition, it is important to cause substantially all of the oxidized color developing agent, which has been generated by the development fulfilling the above-described condition, to undergo the reaction with color couplers. As a means for filling the above-described requirements, it is known to employ silver halides capable of being developed at a high speed and a high rate. In practice, silver chloride and silver chlorobromide emulsions have been employed in some cases. Also, it is known that in other cases where such silver halides cannot be used for some reason an acceleration of development and elevation of developing efficiency can be achieved by increasing a coverage ratio of silver halide to color couplers. Further, it is effective to employ couplers having a high coupling speed, and also to enhance developing activity of a color developing solution itself.
In order to increase a rate of development and a color developing speed of a color developing solution, various methods have so far been employed. One such method consists of using an additive capable of accelerating color formation by speeding up penetration of a color developing agent into oil droplets of coupler dispersions, because it is essential at the final stage of forming dyes by coupling with couplers that a color developing agent itself is incorporated in oil droplets in which the couplers are dispersed. As such an additive, various compounds have been known, especially benzyl alcohol, due to its great effect upon acceleration of color formation. Therefore, benzyl alcohol has so far been used in the development-processing of various kinds of color photographic materials, and at present it is used prevailingly in processing color paper.
Benzyl alcohol, though dissolved in water to some extent, is poor in solubility, so the combined used with diethylene glycol, triethylene glycol, or an alkanolamine has been widely carried out in order to increase the solubility.
However, these compounds and benzyl alcohol itself tend to cause environmental pollution, as indicated by high BOD (biochemical oxygen demand) and COD (chemical oxygen demand) values. Accordingly, it has been desired to reduce the content of benzyl alcohol or to remove benzyl alcohol from the standpoint of disposal of waste water, even though it has an advantage of enhancing color formability, solubility, or so on.
Moreover, the solubility of benzyl alcohol is not yet sufficient even when the above-described solvent, such as diethylene glycol or the like, is used together, so the insufficiency of benzyl alcohol in solubility is responsible for much time and trouble required in preparing a developing solution.
In addition, benzyl alcohol brought into the bath subsequent to the developing bath, namely a bleaching bath or a bleach-fix bath, together with other ingredients of a developing solution, and accumulated therein, is one of the causes of conversion of cyan dyes of some types into the corresponding leuco compounds, to result in lowering of color density of the developed image. Furthermore, accumulated benzyl alcohol tends to cause insufficient washing-out of ingredients of a developing solution, particularly a color developing agent, in the washing step, and these residual ingredients result sometimes in deterioration of image-keeping quality.
From these various points of view, reduction or removal of benzyl alcohol from a color developing solution has great significance. Various methods have been proposed to reduce the amount of benzyl alcohol. For example, Japanese Patent Application (OPI) No. 162256/85 (the term "OPI" as used herein means an "unexamined published application") proposes a method wherein a color development processing is carried out by using a 3-anilino-5-pyrazolone type magenta coupler containing a mercapto group as an eliminable group at a temperature of 33.degree. C. for 3 minutes and 30 seconds. In the examples of the above cited reference, a color photographic light-sensitive material in which a total coverage of silver halide contained in silver halide emulsion layers is 0.77 g/m.sup.2 on a silver basis, and a molar ratio of the silver halide with respect to a yellow coupler of a blue-sensitive emulsion layer is 5/1 is used.
In the case of using such a photographic light-sensitive material, there is a problem that when a development processing is carried out by using a developing solution containing 0 ml or less than 2 ml/l of benzyl alcohol, it is difficult to obtain a sufficient color density.
Besides struggling with these problems at present, color laboratories have been under constant pressure to shorten processing time in order to keep pace with the trend of reducing the time limit for delivering over finished prints.
However, conventional arts cannot satisfy all the foregoing requirements at the same time. If the developing time is shortened in addition to removing benzyl alcohol, it is quite obvious that a significant drop in color density of the developed image is caused thereby.